Saif al-Islam Gaddafi 'trying to broker deal to surrender - but not to Libya

Ben Farmer

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi 'trying to broker deal to surrender - but not to Libya

Independent.ie

MUAMMAR Gaddafi's fugitive son and his intelligence chief are trying to broker a deal to surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a military commander with the new Libyan administration has claimed.

Saif al-Islam had been his late father's favoured son and was seen as his heir apparent. Photo: Reuters

MUAMMAR Gaddafi's fugitive son and his intelligence chief are trying to broker a deal to surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a military commander with the new Libyan administration has claimed.

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Saif al-Islam Gaddafi 'trying to broker deal to surrender - but not to Libya

Independent.ie

MUAMMAR Gaddafi's fugitive son and his intelligence chief are trying to broker a deal to surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a military commander with the new Libyan administration has claimed.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi had concluded they were safer handing themselves in rather than remaining on the run in Libya, or trying to hide in a neighbouring country.

The Hague-based court issued arrest warrants for the two men and Col Gaddafi in June for their role in the bloody attempted suppression of the February 17 revolution.

A spokesman for the court said he had no information on any proposed deal or negotiations, however.

Diplomatic sources also said they had no information to suggest the claims were true.

"They are proposing a way to hand themselves over to The Hague," said Abdel Majid Mlegta, a senior military commander with the National Transitional Council (NTC). "They feel that it is not safe for them to stay where they are or to go anywhere."

Both men are believed to have fled to the deserts of southern Libya after the final Gaddafi loyalist holdouts of Sirte and Bani Walid were captured by rebel forces last week.

Tuareg sources in Niamey had suggested they were trying to cross into Niger where more than 30 Gaddafi regime figures had already taken refuge.

Mr Mlegta said that according to intelligence reports, both men had now reconsidered after deciding they would be at risk in Niger or Algeria.

He also said they had decided Niger was asking for too much money to take them.

Saif al-Islam had been his late father's favoured son and was seen as his heir apparent.

He disappointed many Libyan's and diplomats by siding fully with his father's brutal crackdown against the uprising, despite having advocated political and economic reform to the regime in the past decade.

Both Col Gaddafi and his son "conceived and orchestrated a plan to deter and quell by all means the civilian demonstrations" against the regime according to ICC prosecutors.

Mr Senussi used his position of command to have attacks carried out, they allege.

Fadi El Abdallah, spokesman for the ICC, said. "We don't have confirmation about this now. We are trying to contact the NTC for more information."